Hunt of the Blue Spirit
by DoingWhatIsNothing
Summary: Katara was captured by Azula, and handed over to her Father. She was tortured, raped and degraded. And after escaping killed fire nation soldiers relentlessly and Aang said he could no longer be around her and the Gaang split and went their separate ways.
1. Chapter 1

The Blue spirit prowled through the night, noticed by no one save the spirits and Her. She hunted him as he hunted her. It had been 6 months ago that the Gaang had split, all because Katara no longer conformed to the unspoken _No Killing_ rule. But 3 months of deprivation, torture, and rape would do that to a person.

She had been learning the art of assassination for the last 5 months and now she was on her third job. The Blue Spirit. He was a hope for a desperate people. But Katara knew his true identity, and the banished prince of a bastard King was much easier to kill than the Fire-Lord himself.

Zuko turned and threw a knife in her direction. She ducked and threw a wall of water at him, but he saw it coming and before she could bend again he had her by the throat with both swords.

"Do you know how long I have been looking for you?" He asked her, taking off the mask

It was a rhetorical question and Katara stayed silent and still, hyper aware of the swords at her throat. She had an insane idea, which would make her want to bathe for a whole year. She stepped closer and kissed him.

Zuko was so surprised that he almost dropped the swords he held. But recovering quickly, he pulled away and looked in her eyes. He saw the revulsion there, but also a hint of lust and surprise. He backed her against a conveniently over-sized chimney.

"Don't think your getting away that easy." He whispered almost seductively in her ear. "I have a message from your brother when you decide to stop trying to kill me."

Every possible scenario went through her head and she could make no sense of her raging thoughts. She must have gasped at the news because Zuko was smirking at her reaction. Then he disappeared. Unchallenged.


	2. Chapter 2

Her brother was no longer with Aang, and neither was Toph. Zuko was lying. He had to be, and she had let him go. She was an idiot, and the kiss had gone to her head. Or was it his body pressing hers to the chimney she still sat against? Or the whisper? Or the swords touching her bare throat? At any rate he had escaped. But next time he would not be so lucky. Next time he was a dead banished Prince of a bastard King. The sky had turned a grey colour instead of black, And Katara had been sitting there for hours wondering what was happing to her brother, if anything. She sighed and stood up readying herself to go back to the small cottage she rented from a wealthy landowner she had to kill tomorrow morning. Then it was onto the fourth job and the eighteenth kill.

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><p>Fourteen hours later and the old landowner was dead. He had put up no fight. Said If <em>this is what the spirits will<em>. He was fire nation, and a Firebender, but he seemed almost human. The guilt that racked her body left her gasping for air. Ozai had robbed her of her conscious, and now it all came flooding back. Choking her. Drowning her. It was an ironic thought. A water bender drowning on dry land. More so for her as she had developed a water-bending move that allowed her to breathe in water use the oxygen in it and expel it out of her body. It was slightly uncomfortable at first but after a while it felt almost as natural as breathing in air. Right now she could not face breathing in the life that Aang's element allowed her to do. She wanted to breathe in her element. The quiet would be welcome before she had to back to Him.

Her assassin 'Master' as He forced her to call him. He was no more of a master than Aang was at bending fire. Katara hated the smell, sight, touch, sound, and taste of him. It was hours before she got back. He knew nothing of her heritage, and nothing of her waterbending. She had made sure of that. When she got back He beat her then rode her relentlessly. Until she was almost sobbing with the pain. He came inside her and she was quick to bend it out her system in the bathroom and bathe. She scrubbed her skin until it was red. Her thoughts returned to Zuko as she did this mechanically. The way he had pressed his body against hers, the kissed she had initiated to lure him into letting down his guard. The seductive whisper. She had shivered, but not with revulsion as she had thought at the time.

Tears slid down her face as her thoughts shifted to the eighteen souls she had claimed. _People die in wars all the time..._ The words floated through her head. They sounded like Jet. He was just the same as every other man that she had known her own age. He found her weakness and exploited it, he took more than Ozai or _Master _could, which had made his betrayal had done the same as he rode her and... Katara forcibly wrenched her mind off that trail. The Fire-Lord haunted her sleeping moments. Was it too much to ask for that her waking moments remained free of him.

Katara heard the faint snores permeate the air of the small grotty apartment that she was forced to share with Him. She bent the water off her body and padded silently into the next room in nothing but her skin. She became devoid of emotion as she looked at His sleeping form. She bent water out of the still draining bath and sent an ice dagger through his heart, ending his miserable existence. Nighteen.

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><p><strong>Okay I have a<strong> **completely different story saved onto my Laptop but it includes an original character. I haven't read a story with an original Character though I'm sure they must be out there. Could you please review and let me know what your verdict on Original characters are so I can decide whether to upload it or not. Thank you x **


	3. Chapter 3

Katara slipped through the shadows, watching for any sign of the banished prince. She payed special attention to those that wore hoods. Finally she saw a likely candidate. She tailed him never once losing him in the crowds. He turned slightly and Katara saw the scar. She tailed at a distance. He stopped at a stall to buy food and she stopped next to him.

"Come to kill me again?" Zuko knew she was there

"No." She slipped an apple into one of her sleeves as she said this.

Zuko couldn't help but smile, remembering when he had had to do the same thing.

"I can pay for that you know."

Her anger flared slightly. "I'm not a charity case"

"I never suggested you were" Zuko feigned offence. "But you are broken"

He whispered this in her ear as he walked past, carrying his payed for goods. She didn't know what to say to that. No one had ever called her broken. What did he even mean by that. She was consumed by guilt, and she cared less for herself than she had before. Did he mean that? Or something else?

"Are you coming?" Zuko had stopped to wait for her.

She followed him, but at a distance, in case it was a trap. He didn't seem to mind too much. If fact Zuko preferred it that way, if the rumours about her were true, then he didn't want to stand any closer to a master waterbending assassin than he already was.

* * *

><p>When Sokka saw her he almost threw himself across the camp fire to hug her. She stiffened at his touch, but did not pull away like would if it had been any other man. Having said that She did not hug him back either. Sokka couldn't help but smile like a fool and gush out how much he had missed her. Katara couldn't help but smile slightly at him.<p>

Sokka didn't notice that anything was off. Zuko did. Her smile was sad. Her eyes were wary. SHe was watching every move they made with a cold analysis that made Zuko shiver. He dreaded to think at what would happen if one of them moved too fast for her liking. He was not going to be the one to test out _that_ little theory.


	4. Chapter 4

The next morning Katara was gone. Sokka hadn't yet woke up and was snoring softly in his sleeping bag. Zuko went to get up to start the fire for breakfast found he was pinned to the floor: With a knife made of ice.

He wasn't going to read anything into it, just another death threat. But if that was the case why was he still alive. He melted it and continued with his morning routine of starting breakfast. Sokka would wake when he smelled it. For some reason he couldn't seem to get Katara off his mind. Why had she come with him if all she intended to do was steal away during the night? Unless she wanted to see if he was lying, but if she thought he was lying, then why did she take the risk? Zuko really hated girls. They were so complicated.

"When did she leave?" Sokka's voice was monotonous, void of emotion.

"Before I woke up."

"Actually I never left."

The voice came from the direction of the stream. Sokka's face went from emotionless to ecstatic in a heartbeat. It made Zuko jealous, and not for the first time, of the bond that they shared. Or used to. Zuko noticed once again that Katara tolerated Sokka's affection, but didn't return it. Did his father really mess her up that bad? Or was it his sister's implements of torture? He had been privy to those and it wasn't a place for the weak spirited. If it had broken Katara, then it proved the strength of their effect. Zuko didn't have much of a stomach when it came to torture, but he acknowledged it as an effective form of retaining information.

"HEY! Fire-Freak." Sokka's voice broke through his thoughts. It seemed like he'd been trying to get Zuko's attention for a while.

Zuko thought he saw the ghost of a smile brush over Katara's lips. "What?"

"I'm going to find some meat that doesn't burn like a bitch."

"Wait? Wha..."

"Oh, Don't complain."

"That's rich coming from the guy that does nothing but." Zuko's anger had been spiked.

"See ya" With that Sokka was gone.

Steam erupted from Zuko's mouth as his fists clenched. I_'m going to kill him. _Zuko looked over at Katara, who was warily watching him in return.

"So" Zuko began

"So" Katara copied his tone.

"What did my father and sister do to you?"

"What are you suggesting, Zuko" She said his name with so much hostility that if naming someone had an effect; Zuko would be writhing with pain on the floor.

"That you aren't who you used to be, and I know that you were captured by Azula and taken prisoner, So I'm _suggesting_ that they did something to screw you up bad."

Katara gave Zuko a bitter smile and looked away from him. "What of it? I have a better question. Why didn't they just Kill me?"

Zuko opened his mouth to speak, but then shut it when he realised he had nothing to say.

Seeing his predicament Katara continued. "They beat me. They tortured me. They starved me. They..." Katara stopped unable to go in a calm enough voice.

She trembled with emotion. Anger, shame, and hatred coursed through her at the memory of what they had done to her.

"I'm sorry." Zuko said simply. On Azula's part he knew exactly how imaginative she could be. As for his father, he could only guess.

"Don't be. As far as I'm concerned, if my brother trusts you then I can tolerate you." Katara said bluntly. "But don't make the mistake that we are friends."

"I hope I can earn your trust in the future."


	5. Chapter 5

_The room she was in was cold and dark. She could feel every bruise on her body, every cut, every ache. The that appeared at her door stunned her slightly. until her eyes became used to the light. _

_"Hello Katara." The voice that spoke was not Azula's. Katara had come to know that voice very well. _

_No. For a start this voice belonged to a man. It was rich and deep. There was a cruel edge to it like Azula's, but less prominent, and yet somehow more potent. It made Katara's skin crawl with fear._

_The golden eyes that looked at her were so like someone else's that it was hard not to know who he was. Fire-Lord Ozai. He moved to the wall and touched his hand to it, lighting the ring of oil around Katara's cell._

Katara woke in a cold sweat, gasping as she did so. She looked at the dark sky estimating that it was still very late, or early. Depending on how you looked at it.

"Are you okay?" Zuko had woken up when he heard her gasp.

"I'm fine" Katara scowled at her hands.

Zuko's voice was so like his fathers. But there was no edge to it. If chocolate could speak, Katara imagined that it would sound like that. She used to anyway.

"I know I'm probably the last person you want to speak to right now, but can help you with..."

"No, you can't. You may have been tortured by Azula. But she didn't have you raped. And You weren't tortured by your father ever. So don't presume you can help me." Katara's hushed whisper vehement, and full of contempt.

"Actually, she did" Zuko stated it so calmly, without emotion, that it stopped her in her tracks and diffused what had been a steadily building anger.

"Zuko, I-I had no idea."

"Yeah, well take your own advice and don't presume anything." Zuko told her. " I was a traitor the moment I told my father and Azula that I was going to join the Avatar during the eclipse. I thought I could get away, but It didn't happen like that. I was caught and tortured, and beaten, and raped. Just because I was a prince of the fire nation, it didn't make me less of a traitor. It made me more of one, and I was subjected to the same treatment any enemy of the fire nation is given. I escaped when they decided it was time I died a public death."

This was the most Katara had ever heard Zuko say at once. "It was the same for me, and then it was your fathers turn."

_He moved to the wall and touched his hand to it, lighting the ring of oil around Katara's cell. He circled the water bender looking at her from every angle. He touched her face, her neck, and ran a single finger from her chin to the top of her breasts. Her clothes were already tatters and not hard to remove. Katara spat at him._

_"Go ahead. It's not like any one has already tried that." She yelled at him_

_"Ah, you misunderstand my intentions." Ozai purred. "My form of torture is very unlike my Daughters. I'll make you want to tell me of your own free will."_

_His hand then travelled down her body towards her folds. The light touch made Katara shiver. He skipped over them and ran both his hands up her thighs. Then touched her, finding that little nub of nerves quicker than Katara thought possible for a man. He made her quiver and the feel of his touch was soon the only coherent thought she had. A knot of pleasure formed in the pit of Katara's stomach, and she grew so close to release that she could feel herself tipping over the edge. Then he stopped._

_The shame that overwhelmed Katara as the feeling of pleasure died down was unbearable. He dressed her then left._

"I don't want to hear anymore." Zuko stopped her.

Tears of shame rolled down her face and Zuko felt an overwhelming desire to put his arms around her. So he did. Katara stiffened but did not pull away.

"I know the rest." Zuko told her. "He once told me that it was the best form of torture, and that every prince must learn how to control a woman through touch if not by word." His voice sounded bitter as reminisced about the conversation.

"Thank you." Katara's voice was barely a whisper, as she relaxed into his arms, and fell asleep.

Zuko wanted to asked her for what, but he was sure he would find out tomorrow. Instead he let her sleep in his arms and realised that he would have some explaining to do if Sokka woke up before she did.


	6. Chapter 6

Thankfully Katara woke up hours before her brother, and had crept back to her own sleeping bag being sure not to wake Zuko although he was still awake. Not that she knew that, and he was very good at pretending to be asleep. It got him out of a few 'talks' with his uncle when they had travelled together. Katara acted as nothing had ever happened the night before, and as far as Zuko was concerned nothing did. She appeared to be more sympathetic towards him, and as what had become normal Sokka noticed very little. He had started to notice Katara's stiffness at physical contact and assumed he was embarrassing her. KAtara seemed releived at her brothers dimness for once.

She went to go water bend in the nearby stream, leaving Sokka and Zuko alone.

"Whats wrong with my sister." Sokka had pounced on him before he had even had the chance to put lunch over the fire.

"Uh. You should know better than me. She's your sister." Zuko evaded

"You're a horrible liar, Zuko." Sokka told him plainly. "She hasn't been the same since she was tortured by the fire nation 9 months ago."

Zuko looked away from him. He had played both Zuko and Katara, making them believe that he was completely oblivious to katara's changed state of mind.

"They have..." Zuko paused looking for the right words. "very effective methods of extracting information."

Sokka appreciated the delicate phrasing that Zuko used, He knew that Zuko had been subjected to this e_ffective method_, but not what it entailed, and frankly he didn't want to know.

"If it helps my sister I want to know."

"No, you don't." Zuko said this and walked away, clearly indicating that he did not want to go there. His mind running over his own experience. Shooting fireballs just to remember what light looked like. The lashes that seared his back and making his blood add to the stained floor. The small burns on sensitive parts of his body. The cuts and pricks, the beatings, the rape. No. Sokka did not want to know any of that.

He went to find Katara by the water and was very nearly pinned to a tree. Not realising that he had snuck up on her.

"Sorry." Katara told him.

"It's fine. I have a question." He told her. "What did you thank me for last night?"

"For Understanding." She looked at the ground looking slightly embarrassed at having to tell him.

"I see." He said plainly, contemplating what that meant. He'd never been thanked by anyone for simply understanding the pain someone had felt.

She sent a small splash of water at Zuko's face. The shock that he displayed, made Katara laugh, A light hearted laugh that lifted Zuko's own spirits. and he went to the river and began to pelt the water with his hands in her direction.

It was losing battle. Every time he tried to manually throw water at her, she bent it back in his direction. It had them both giggling and laughing and screaming by the end of it. Sokka had joined in at some point, and the three of them splashed around like that for most of the day. Zuko and Sokka ganging up on Katara, trying to get her but filing miserably. They stopped out of exhaustion, mid-aftrnoon and went back to a very burnt lunch that not even Katara could salvage.


	7. Chapter 7

Sokka had been snoring peacefully for a while now. Zuko was between wakefulness and sleeping when Katara gasped and sat up suddenly. A second passed and then she began to sob uncontrollably, quietly. Zuko had never been good with understanding girls. He went with his gut instinct and sat up.

"Are you Ok?" he said it quietly, Barely above the sound she was making.

"Zuko?" She started to try and get control of herself

Still going with his gut he got up and went to sit with her across the fire. Her took her into his arms. The sobs started up once more with more force. As she buried her face in his chest. He smelled of woodsmoke and pine needles, outdoor smells that was nothing like the perfume in her dreams. They stayed like that for about an hour as Katara cried herself out.

She sat up as her sobs subsided, and looked up into Zuko's eyes. They were so like the eyes of her tormentor, and yet so different. They had the same base colour as His eyes, but they had darker and lighter flecks in them that gleamed in the coals of the had no cruel streak in his eyes either. they were all concern and seriousness.

"Better?"

His voice was very unlike his fathers. Again there was no cruel streak and it was silky and not as deep. She leaned up and kissed him. Zuko was taken completely off guard and after a beat he kissed her back. He deepened it, and started to lay her back.

"Stop." Her voice was husky with lust, but there was also fear in her voice.

There was no question that she wanted him. Wanted to feel his skin against hers wanted him to do... Well, everything. She was still just so afraid. Zuko understood what she meant and stopped immediately. He had always felt an attraction for her, even when he was chasing them. After she had opened up so completely about what had happened, the desire to protect her from the world was over-bearing, this just made him want her and want to protect her stronger.

He sat them both up and kissed Katara on the forehead, as he placed her between his legs so she could lean back on him.

"I'll wait for you." He told her simply. "I will wait and I will never let anything happen to you.

They fell asleep like that, Katara wrapped in his arms, and feeling for the first time that everything was almost completely right. The only thing missing was Aang and Toph.


	8. Chapter 8

It had been weeks now and Katara was relearning her old ways. She learned to trust Zuko a little more every night they hadn't kissed since that night, but her attraction to him was undeniable.

They shared a sleeping bag most nights and the nights that they didn't Katara woke stifling a scream and ended up crawling in with him anyway. He would always be awake with open arms for her, he had never been a heavy sleeper and it was useful to wake and be alert before his brain even registered what noise had alerted him.

And Katara? He was learning not to display his rage aggressively as she was learning to trust him. The first he had angered at shot fire into the air in front of her, she had flinched. Well he'd perceived it as a flinch, but when he looked he'd been pinned to a tree by ice that refused to melt as she held onto her frozen element.

"Please don't do that again." Her voice was soft, quiet, dangerous.

She released him after and he had no idea how close she had come to actually killing him.

Travelling on foot was slow and they had finally reached the earth Kingdom after avoiding almost every town on the way there and every fire nation patrol that were now a regular site on the roads at night. Gaoling was just up ahead and the trip had been mostly silent.

"Hey do you think the Boulder might be around? I never did get his Autograph." Sokka piped

"Is this guy serious?" Zuko asked Katara

"What? I was kidding." He said after.

Katara laughed at both Zuko's face and Sokka's pouting tone, before they fell back into companionable silence.

"Do you think that Toph will even be here?" Katara asked analyzing every palpable escape route out of habit as they walked.

"It's the best place to start." Sokka said as he eyed up the merchandise that was on offer at the market stalls.

As it turned out she was here, she had been "found" and returned to her parents where it was rumoured that they kept her locked up.

"No meal at their place then." Sokka said glumly as they searched for a decent place to sleep for the night. And it wasn't going to be at an inn as they had barely enough money to but supplies even with Katara risking her hand for the odd apple or small loaf of bread.

Katara noticed posters everywhere for Aang, and Zuko and her? She stopped and pulled one from the wall. It had no drawing but the description was perfect and there was no name either, she simply known as _The Ice Assassin_. The price on her head was small in comparison to Aang and Zuko but it was enough to buy them a good room at an inn or enough supplies to last a month. She remembered last time that they had tried this heist and wondered if it was worth the risk. She thought so, but would her brother. Or more importantly Zuko.


	9. Chapter 9

It was one of those nights where Katara was scared to sleep. She lay next to Zuko wide-awake, watching the full moon make its slow journey through the sky and glancing at the prince who slept fitfully next to her. There was a sheen of sweat on his face and his head turn one way and the other. She gave up watching the moon and focused on Zuko's face. He was scowling in his sleep. Katara considered trying to calm him. She gathered some water from a nearby puddle, wondering if she could use her element to heal mental scars. She put her hand on his forehead. He jolted awake grabbing her wrist as he did.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. But did not let go of her wrist.

"Nightmare?" she asked him

He nodded.

"I didn't mean to startle you. I was going to see if I could stop your nightmare."

"Thank you. But I need to deal with these demons myself."

He still hadn't let go of her wrist. He was almost cradling it. She pulled away and held his hand.

"We're so different. Yet…" she paused looking for the words, "the same. We are both plagued by nightmares and…"

She shook her head, frustrated, as she couldn't find the words to explain.

"And attracted to each other?" He hesitated.

"We never did talk about the night we kissed." He said after she didn't reply.

"What's there to talk about? I enjoyed it, and I was scared to go on even though a part of me wanted to." She replied in a deadpan tone.

Zuko leant toward her and kissed her gently on those beautiful, full, rose-coloured lips, slightly concerned about her reaction.

"I want you to know I'd never purposely hurt you.," he mumbled against them.

She began kissing him back, her chest so full of emotion that she almost felt like bursting, hot tears tracking down her face that he absently brushed away with his thumbs. His tongue flicked out begging entrance and she let him wanting to explore him with her own tongue.

He rolled onto her and between her slightly open thighs without breaking that kiss, placing one hand on the back of her neck holding her to him and the other on her hip almost without realizing. She let him, enjoying burning kisses, so gentle and so full of passion, that she wanted him, trembling at the thought of having him inside her. With lust, not the fear that she associated with having sex.

He moved his hand to the buttons of the shirt she wore. He pulled away from the kiss and caught her eyes with his.

"Is it alright?"

Katara was slightly taken aback. He was keeping a reign on his desire, which she could feel, to ask permission? She nodded unable to speak. He undid them slowly as if a sudden move would scare her. And as he finished he again stopped to kiss her thoroughly again. She pulled the two parts of her shirt open for herself, guiding one of his hands to her breast. He pulled his thumb across her stiffening nipple making her arch her back shoving her breast into his capable hands.

He kissed her cheek, then her neck tracking them down between her soft giving breasts before bringing them back up and over to her other breast flicking his tongue over it. Katara moaned. Loudly. She put her hands over her mouth and Zuko stop listening for the uneven pattern of breathing that would indicate that Sokka had woken up. Nothing. So he continued his ministrations, switching over at some point so his mouth was on the other breast and his thumb was circling the other. Katara pulled him up to kiss his mouth and pulling her shirt closed at the same time. He looked into her eyes. Lust warred with fear; fear winning the battle. She was still too scarred to go further, his shaft was throbbing but he ignored it not wanting to push her and not wanting to drive a wedge in what would be a beautiful relationship as long as he was patient. _The fire nation wasn't built in a day._ He thought again taking her into his arms before falling into a peaceful slumber.


End file.
